One common type of imaging device is a pulse-echo imaging device in which the device includes multiple transducers that transmit pulses towards a target to be imaged, and then receive echoes, which are reflected back to the transducers from the target. By analyzing these echoes, the device is able to create an image of the target reflected the pulses. Two common examples of pulse-echo imaging systems are ultrasound imaging devices and radar imaging devices.
As technology in these types of systems advances, however, the number and complexity of the transducers that are used in such imaging devices has risen. This increase in the number and complexity of transducers has lead to challenges in effectively transmitting data within an imaging device, from one element to another.
For example, modern ultrasound probes can employ tens of transducers for improved focusing. A typical phased-array ultrasound probe has 64-256 transducers each operating at a sampling frequency of 25-60 MHz and with a typical sampling resolution of 12 bits. As a result, the data throughput from the transducers to a receiver beamformer in a digital front end is on the order of tens of Gigabits per second. This high throughput complicates the input/output interface of the digital front end of the ultrasound receiver by raising the threat of signal interference and loss along a transmission line leading from an analog front end to a digital front end in the ultrasound unit. Similar complications would be expected in other pulse-echo imaging devices, such as radar imaging devices.
Lossless compression of the ultrasound RF data being passed through the device would result in significant saving in the input/output (I/O) cost and would simplify the interface for digital signal processors without introducing any distortion to the signal.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an imaging device and method in which imaging data is compressed prior to being transmitted from an analog front end to a digital front end within the imaging device, and is then decompressed once transmission is complete. Moreover it is desirable that this compression be performed in a lossless manner so that no imaging data is lost through the compression/decompression process. It is further desirable to exploit the redundancy in the transducers RF data for compression.